Site Visits, Bologna – ITALY

GAIA Kindergarten – managed by Cadiai

GAIA Kindergarten is managed by Cadiai that is a social cooperative founded in Bologna in 1974 and now registered as NPO (non-profit organizations of social utility). Cadiai carries out social services for health and education, often in collaboration with public institutions.
Gaia Kindergarten was opened in September 2009 and it is managed by the Consortium Karabakh-Cinque in agreement with the Municipality of Bologna. The management of all the training services provided by Gaia Kindergarten is assigned to Cadiai and it is carried out according with the core values that represent the base of Cadiai. It is aimed at contributing to the general interest of the community through direct services to improve the quality of people's lives, enable the involvement of users and their families, promote integration in the territory. The interest of Gaia in terms of sustainability and social responsibility is due to its financial management (project financing) and to the environmental respect that characterizes all the activities of the structures.
Further information:http://www.cadiai.it/gaianido-p-74.html

Residential Care Home Parco del Navile

The residential Care Home Parco del Navile is able to accommodate non self-sufficient people and all those who, while not requiring specific hospital services, should have guaranteed 24 hours medical nursing with psychological support and rehabilitation treatments for the maintenance and
improvement of the state of health and well-being. The structure offers 108 beds in 65 rooms (22 single and 43 double rooms) all with en suite bathrooms. It has a garden, a gym, several dining rooms and living rooms for the conduct of joint activities and entertainment. There are no barriers nor out, neither inside. The residence, surrounded by nature but in a strategic position, is easily reached by any means. The two main buildings linked to each other, for building and colors recall the Bolognese tradition, blending into the natural surroundings. Owner of the service is the consortium Kedos that manages the residential care home in cooperation with the social cooperatives CADIAI and Gulliver.
The interest of the Residential Care Home is due also to its origins. In fact it was built by recovering a paper mill. After decades of neglect it has been completely renovated to create a socio-sanitary comfortable residential care home.
Further information:http://www.parcodelnavile.it/

UNIPOL

The Unipol Group is today the second-largest insurance group operating in Italy and the largest operating in Non-Life business. The Unipol Group has more than 13.5 million customers and its history began with Unipol Assicurazioni, founded in 1961 and subsequently acquired by several cooperatives belonging to the Lega delle Cooperative (League of Cooperatives). Unipol's view is that insurance business must be geared to protecting and ensuring the security of individuals, whereas banking business must cover a large geographical area in order to be deemed to be sustainable.
Sustainability within the Group is based on solid foundations, which have been reinforced over the last twenty years: a combination of the creation of long-term financial value and an approach that brings together governance, protection of the environment and social responsibility. This vision permeates the corporate ethos of all the Group companies and the Unipolis Foundation, covering not only their principles but also their business activities, in order that the challenges of sustainability – not only the risks but also the opportunities – can be managed in an increasingly effective manner: economic growth, stronger governance.
innovative product solutions, building long-term relationships with customers, involvement and professional development of employees, commitment to the community. During the study visits the partners will be host by CUBO Unipol that is a multimedia space where there’s a documentation centre through which Unipol wants to describe the history, the identity and the value characterizing all the business activities of the Group.
Further information:http://www.unipolbanca.it/Pages/default.aspx

COOP ADRIATICA

Coop Adriatica is one of the nine large cooperatives that are part of the Coop system, the most important Italian large retailers and, at the same time, a big consumer organization.
Coop Adriatica was inspired by the willingness of consumers to come together to better protect their purchasing power and to obtain guarantees on the quality and safety of products. T
The core mission of Coop Adriatica is based on five pillars: to provide members with products and services more convenient, secure and suitable for their well-being and to promote consumer education; to develop cooperative democracy and to increase community assets; Enhancing the work and employee engagement; to encourage the development and innovation capability. Inspire every market relationship to the principles of transparency and fairness; to help improving the human and physical environments in which the cooperative operates and strengthening the role of the Cooperative Movement.
The INCOOP of Conselice is an advanced shop for the quantity and quality of solutions throughout its life cycle, starting from the choice of materials. The shop is constructed with especially reusable and recyclable materials, recovering also debris of the existing buildings. Indeed, the structure was designed as an holistic system, in which individual solutions complement each other resulting in a "virtuous" balance. This balance is based on: eco-innovation (this area includes both the technological and structural innovation and the innovations in management); the usability of the store and the social implications and the influence on the social fabric of Conselice.
Further information:http://www.e-coop.it/web/guest/coop-conselice-il-supermercato-amico-dell-ambiente

HERA

The Hera Group is a leader in the management of services related to the water cycle, the energy sector and in the management of environmental services. The Group is also engaged in the management of public lighting and traffic light systems and district heating. Hera pursues a Multi-business growth strategy, focused on three "core" business areas: Environment, Energy and Water Services. This is successful business model that has been imitated by other operators in the market. All the business activities and strategies of HERA are addressed to:

Customers: by listening constantly to customer HERA tries to provide services that satisfy their expectations;

women and men who work in the enterprise: in order to be active protagonists of the results with their expertise, their involvement and their passion;

shareholders: HERA wants them to be confident that the economic value of the company will continue to be generated, in accordance with the principles of social responsibility;

the territory that is considered the economic, social and environmental capital for a sustainable future;

suppliers, key elements of the value chain and partners for growth.

In 2009 it was finished in Imola (Bologna), a cogeneration plant of 80 MWe. It is a very modern facility both in technical and architectural terms, it is built within the urban area. The plant will become the main center of production of the necessary heat to the tele-heating network of the city and will make the city of Imola independent from the energy point of view, allowing the detachment from the national grid creating a "system" with connotations of uniqueness at national level.
Externally the work fits into the landscape mitigating its impact and also internally it has been studied color scheme that enhances the technical capabilities and the use of space.
Further information:
http://www.gruppohera.it/gruppo/attivita_servizi/business_energia/impianti/pagina14.html

IMPRONTA ETICA

Impronta Etica is an Italian non profit organisation for the development of a Corporate Social Responsibility culture. It was founded in 2001 by some companies located in Emilia-Romagna Region, which were already active in CSR.The association’s missionis promoting sustainable development, creating a network between companies and organisations that are willing to activate CSR practices. Impronta Etica carries out activities such as research, information and updates on CSR issues, projects together with its member companies and networking activities.Indeed Impronta Etica intends to make Italy a crucial actor in Europe on these issues. For this reason in 2002 the Association became a CSR Europe’s National Partner Organisation (NPO) to promote the exchange of best practices and take part to in the European debate on CSR.Impronta Etica currently has 26 members.
Further information:http://www.improntaetica.org/en/about-us/

CISE

The CISE - Center for Innovation and Economic Development - Special Agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Forlì-Cesena works projects and initiatives for sustainable development within the view of the challenges and opportunities of globalization of economic systems. As part of this mission, the CISE has identified the management of social responsibility by organizations as an essential aspect of sustainable development. In particular, the dissemination of the principles and tools for the management of the social responsibility of organizations has been developed with projects in the direction of transparency with respect to the stakeholders, certification systems, CSR in SMEs.
The information point on corporate social responsibility is an initiative of the Chamber of Commerce of Forlì-Cesena and of the special CISE in collaboration with the Network Work Ethics.
Born from the experience and expertise gained by CISE and the Network Work Ethics in research, design, Broadcast Management Tools Social Responsibility Organizations (RSO or CSR Corporate Social Responsibility) and it works as a promoter of project initiatives aimed at facilitating improvement paths by businesses both on a competitive, both on that of respecting social and environmental.
Further information:http://www.ciseonweb.it